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A life of service

Jackie Macadam meets writer and storyteller Irene Howat.

“…..When David was just ten years old he went to work in the cotton mill. ‘It’s SO noisy!’ he thought, the day he started. ‘I used to think the roar of the mill wheel was noisy. It was nothing to this!’ The boy discovered before the first day ended that he had to learn to lip-read because nobody could hear over the clatter of the looms. David was put beside an old weaver and was shown by a mix of sign language, lip-reading and slaps on the back what he had to do. His job was to watch the shuttle going right and left … right and left … right and left – over and over and over and over again and to see when a thread snapped. Then he had to jump up, grab the broken ends, tie them together and all without letting the loom stop going right and left … right and left … over and over and over again. If his mind wandered and he missed a broken thread, a slap on his ear soon made him jump and grab the ends. ………”

THAT’S an extract from author Irene Howat’s version for children, of the story of David Livingstone, written especially for her ‘Story a Month Club’, a web-based site that aims to bring the stories about Christians to children in a living and colourful way.

Irene hails from Ayrshire, a rural area with both farming and mining running through its veins – both industries well represented in Irene’s family.